Objection, HuWG - the French republican cockades were blue, white and red (just the opposite order).
To the colours of Paris, capital and seat of the National Assembly, the revolutionary red was added. It was also a break with heraldic traditions - in the older coats of arms only two colours were used. Therefore the name of the French flag, the Tricolore, was unique in its youth, and the three coloured flag was always associated with revolutionary France.
The Union Jack doesn't count here, since it is an amalgam of four coats of arms, and the Star Spangled Banner, too, as its derivation.

Wilfried